PreSonus Blog

Tag Archives: Central Station

The nice folks over at BoKsis just posted this flattering review of the Central Station PLUS, awarding it 4.3/5 stars! Thanks, guys! We, in turn, would like to award you 5/5 stars. Readers can, and should, read the full Central Station review, and many other reviews of cool stuff from BoKsis, by clicking here. While you’re waiting for that page to load in another tab, here’s a taste of what’s to come:

“The feature count is high, the sound quality is very good and it is a thoroughly well designed and built unit.”

This video doesn’t need a Central Station Remote to be cool—but it helped a little. Check out this cool documentary on how Apple’s Siri came to find her voice, and watch quick for the Central Station PLUS remote at just after the 3:00 mark.

[We decided it best to give some recognition to our more vocal advocates—and what better way than via a blog series.]

Who are you, where are you, and what do you do?

Steve Savanyu. Hudson Ohio, I am the educational services director at Audio-Technica and teach at Kent State University. I teach microphone and wireless workshops at universities around the country and have taught at all of the PreSounSphere events… In my spare time I operate Buford T. Hedgehog Productions, a local production company that does live sound, studio recording , live remote recording, video production and lights just for giggles. I also participate in really big events such as Presidential Debates, Papal visits, and Inaugurations….

How were you introduced to PreSonus?

Through a friendship with Rick Naqvi, at a church sound seminar where I was teaching a microphone class. I assisted with a live recording at the event where we used 3 FirePods aggregated together on my Mac laptop. It was a fun experience and we learned a lot. Ask Rick about hot patching into a non-transformer isolated 48-channel stage snake splitter. It made a big noise on a really expensive NEXO line array…. Oops.

What PreSonus software/hardware do you use and for what purpose?

Where shall I begin? I currently own 5 StudioLive 16.4.2’s, one StudioLive 24.4.2, and 1 StudioLive 16.0.2 which I use primarily for live gigs. I also have been known to carry the 16.0.2 out as the front end for remote tracking sessions using Capture. (I have recorded the orchestral score for two Kent State Student films this way). My original location rig is a FireStudio with 2 Digimax Pres to give me 24 inputs. (I multitracked a basketball game with it for an Audio Technica project. We were showing how different mics and positions affected game sound for broadcast.) In the studio I have a Central Station with remote for speaker management, and a FaderPort which I use as a controller for the audio part of my video edit rig. I picked up an AudioBox 44VSL for location video work (tied into a MacBook Pro laptop). I run a legacy Pro Tools rig in the studio with a DIGI-003 interface (back when ProTools required Digi hardware) with DigiMax D8 mic pre. The band I work with uses two of the 16.4.2s and performs about four nights a week on average (in different locations). The ease of operation on the StudioLive console and the ability to save scenes makes it a snap for the band to use.

On the software side, I use Capture to record almost every live event we do. The low overhead of capture allows me to use some pretty basic computers to record up to 32 tracks via two linked StudioLive 16.4.2s. In the studio, I have been using Studio One Professional 2.5 as my main edit software. I like it, as it’s intuitive and has low computer processing overhead so it runs great on a laptop. As an experiment, I mixed a seven-song EP of a band I work with on a flight from LA to New York! I was burning out the CD as the flight attendant was saying power down your electronic devices for landing. Of course my Audio-Technica ATH-M50 headphones made accurate monitoring possible in the plane’s less-than-fancy mixdown environment.

I have dabbled with iPad control on my larger rig, but not implemented it completely due to the expense of buying seven iPads, computers and routers. I am looking forward to the StudioLive 32.4.2AI with its built-in networking. I can beta test… 🙂

What’s so great about PreSonus, anyhow?

First and foremost is the people! I have called Justin and Rick on weekends and evenings with questions and they always get back to me promptly. I have participated in both PreSonuSphere events and like the camaraderie of the entire PreSonus Family.

Second, is the products just work and sound good. They are intuitive to learn making it easy for me to train a band’s engineer on using a digital board. We like the fact the processing is built-in to the StudioLive consoles. The presets sound great, and make it easy to get a mix up even if you have never done sound for the band before. True story: Early on we did a gig for a band who was unfamiliar with the power of a digital console. It was an outdoor event so I had the 16.4.2 out front with the snake and a power cable for FOH stuff. Their diva lead singer, who knew everything about sound and told me so, was being a pain in the butt. He walked out to FOH, looked at the “smallish” console and said “dude where is your effects/EQ rack?” I hesitated for a moment and looked him in the eye and said: “Dang, I knew we forgot something…” The look on his face was priceless…

And third of course, is the jambalaya…

Where can our readers learn more about you online?

First and foremost, check out the Audio-Technica.com website. A-T makes great studio and live mics that pair up well with PreSonus hardware. Our new AT5040 with its revolutionary capsule design and “pure, simple signal path” would pair up well with the ADL 700 Channel Strip (hint hint, I have the mic…) Our Artist Series and Artist Elite live sound mics are second to none.

As for me, check out my website www.bufordthedgehog.com and visit me on Facebook. I try to post a FOH picture of every gig I do either on my page or the PreSonus user group page. I am on LinkedIn but don’t do the Twitter thing.

You can see some of my video work on the A-T YouTube channel as well as other audio companies’ YouTube channels. I have several published articles about doing audio for video and I am the audio expert on the FilmSkills online training series produced by Jason Tomuric.

I attend all of the major trade shows: NAMM, INFOCOMM, NAB, etc. and do microphone and sound workshops at universities, church conferences (with my good friend Doug Gould) and trade shows. You can’t miss my distinctive look…. just ask for the blonde guy!

At Beach Road, we use a few pieces of PreSonus gear that are in regular use each and every day. At the forefront of our monitoring rig, we use a Central Station that has a custom built PSU by none other than rad PreSonus audio dude Chad Kelly. The unit was awesome before, but has been made more awesome by this simple upgrade. We also make heavy use of a FaderPort during all of our tracking and mixing to have some hands-on control when setting up the sessions.

Furthermore, we’ve also got a mobile recording rig that is comprised in part by a pair of PreSonus Digimax LT units, which are used to capture anything from drums to guitars to vocals on our remote sessions. The mic pres in the LT’s are fantastic, (as are all of the PreSonus pres,) and pack quite a punch in such a small 1U space. A PreSonus HP4 handles all of the headphone duties, since the amps are so blisteringly loud, and the unit is über small and fits in well when trying to keep the load light on the road.

Studio One Professional 2 gets a lot of use as well. It’s used on our main rig for simple editing and mastering, as well as on our mobile rig for the same. We also keep it installed on both our playback and recording rigs in our high-end mastering room for various tasks.